


My Hunter, My Prey

by empress_ofbloodshed



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/F, vampire!manon and vampirehunter!elide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:47:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29645289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empress_ofbloodshed/pseuds/empress_ofbloodshed
Summary: Elide Lochan, hunter of all things unnatural.Her friend and hunting parter never came back, so it's up to Elide to hunt the vampire that killed him.One small problem: the vampire she promised to kill, she's falling for her.
Relationships: Manon Blackbeak/Elide Lochan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	My Hunter, My Prey

**Author's Note:**

> as it says, vampire!manon and vampirehunter!elide. need i say more than that?

_ If I’m not back in three days, she killed me _

Elide crumpled the note in her fist, swearing under her breath. It had been a week of waiting in this dingy town and he still wasn’t back yet. She didn’t want to acknowledge that her friend, her partner in all senses but romantic, was dead. They had been hunting and collecting bounties for three years now, friends for just over two.

Another girl had gone missing last night. Her friend stumbled back at dawn, his face pale and his clothes stiff with dried blood. When she tried to question him, he gave her a blank stare.

“Damn it all to hell,” Elide hissed, standing in the cheap inn room with walls thinner than a sheet of paper. Buckling the leather band around her thigh, she slid both silver daggers into their respective sheaths. She slung the bandolier of three blood-stained wooden stakes and two more knives across her chest, making sure it was secure. In a pouch at her waist was a handful of jingling coins and Lorcan’s note. Lastly, she fastened the clasp of her heavy cloak at her throat, flipping up the hood.

The sound of her boots on creaky wooden floors made the other inn patrons look up, only to find their drinks, games, or bowls of stew very interesting. By now, they all knew her name.

Elide Lochan, hunter of all things unnatural.

The innkeeper focused his one dark brown eye on her, taking the coins she placed on the counter. “Leavin’, milady?” he asked, mildly curious. She merely nodded. “Good luck out there, hunter,” the man called after her. “I’ve heard this one likes her victims fresh.”

Out in the market, she bought fresh supplies for her trip. At the sight of her cloak embroidered with protective Wyrdmarks, mothers pulled their children to their sides. Stepping inside the apothecary, the girl greeted Elide warmly. She was one of few to do so. 

“Good hunting, Miss Lochan,” the girl said, handing her the bundle of cloth. Elide thanked her, trekking through the muddied streets of the town to the tree where she and Lorcan had hidden their larger weapons. His sword was gone, yet her crossbow still remained.

It was half a day’s hike to where the castle lay. Elide stood on top of the crest overlooking the castle and its stone walls, the sun bleeding behind her. As darkness fell, lights flickered on inside the castle. The silhouette of a figure stood in one window and Elide shivered, like the vampire saw her.

The next day when the sun was at its highest point, Elide became nothing more than a shadow. Her boots made no sound as she snuck into the castle, the wooden door creaking ominously. Unlike some other castles she had visited, this one seemed like a home, not the lair of a blood-sucking creature. The kitchen was quiet, yet warm. Padding up the stairs, she followed the lush carpets, passing a dining room shining with golden sunlight, a library full of books she wished she had time to read, and a circular room where the walls were adorned with weapons of all sorts.

Elide meant to pass it, but a sword on the wall caught her eye. She knew that sword and its owner as well as she knew herself. Running into the room, she struggled to lift the blade off the wall, but once she did, she sank to her knees and cradled his sword. A tear ran down her cheek, dripping from her chin to the steel of his blade.

“No, Lorcan,” she whispered. “Nonono, you fuckingーyou promised me you wouldn’t die.”

He had to be dead, because he would never willingly part with his sword.

A scream of anguish tore at her throat, but she forced it down. Once the vampire was dead, she could mourn him. But now she was on the hunt.

* * *

The doors to the bedchamber opened soundlessly. Wooden stake in one hand, Elide held a dagger in the other. She had left her pack and cloak with Lorcan’s sword, not wanting to be weighed down if the vampire decided to put up a fight. With the curtains drawn, it was dark and gloomy inside. A single sliver of sunlight fought its way through the small break in the dark fabric, illuminating little.

Elide followed her gut into a smaller chamber. She could barely see the bed and the figure upon it. The only sound in the room was her own breathing. Raising the stake, she prepared to drive it home in the vampire’s heart when her fingers landed in something sticky on the edge of the bed.

She stumbled backward, yanking open the thick curtains and blinding herself. Instead of a sleeping monster, Lorcan lay on the bed, his throat slashed by what looked like claws. Blood covered his chest and the white sheets.

Anger curled inside her like an adder, waiting to strike.

Between one moment and the next, a hand curled around Elide’s throat and another ripped off her bandolier, dropping it on the ground. “I wondered how long it would take you,” the vampire whispered in Elide’s ear. Their grip tightened, long iron-tipped nails digging into her skin. “He was fun to play with for a few days. I could see the  _ hope _ in his eyes that you would arrive to save him in time. I never see hope, only fear. It was quite a refreshing change, although he tasted foul.

“Poor Lorcan, waiting and waiting for a human who never came.”

Having hid the wooden stake in her sleeve, Elide let it slip into her palm and she exhaled, steadying herself and her frayed nerves. She let her body go limp, the vampire forced to make the decision whether to drop her or catch her. They chose to catch her, and Elide whirled, her stake making itself a new home in the creature’s heart.

The vampireーa woman with startling gold eyes and white hairーstumbled backward in shock. Then her shock slid away to reveal a fanged smile. She wrapped her hand around the wood, yanking it out with a hiss and dropping it on the floor, wiping her hands on her black trousers.

“Whaー” Elide breathed. “How?”

A laugh filled the room and Elide wanted to cringe away, but she forced herself to stand her ground. Her hands shook, so she hid them behind her back.

“You think a mere wooden stake would kill the Queen of the Wastes?” Her laugh faded, replaced with amusement. “I’m afraid, Elide Lochan, that you’re going to have to try harder than that. You are a lovely little thing, I may have to keep you around.”

“No,” Elide spat, her temper returned. She threw her last hidden dagger, a blade of flashing silver with Wyrdmarks forged into the metal. To the senses of anything other than a human, it was undetectable.

The blade sunk home in the vampire’s shoulder, directly above her heart. Instead of red, blue soaked her white shirt. While she was distracted, Elide took a dagger from her discarded bandolier and her favorite knife from the sheath on her thigh. It was a beauty, forged of a copper metal that gleamed in the light, with brass knuckles instead of a hilt.

When the vampire tried to grasp the hilt of the Wyrdmarked dagger, she hissed as her skin burned on contact. Her golden eyes narrowed and she wrapped a piece of bedsheet she sliced from the bed around her palm, tearing the knife out of her own chest and throwing it to the side. It skittered across the wooden floor, sliding under a dresser. Blue blood still oozed from the wound, the spells preventing her from healing.

The Queen of the Wastes bared her fangs, the room sinking into darkness with a snap of her fingers. This was no natural darkness, Elide knew it deep in her soul. She cried out as those iron nails sliced into her side, punching with her brass knuckles reflexively and connecting. Another swipe of the vampire’s nails left fire in their wake, blood dripping hot down Elide’s thigh and into her boots.

Closing her eyes, she listened, for sight would do her no good. It was almost nothing, yet still something: the scuff of a boot on the floor.

Launching herself forward, Elide tackled the white-haired vampire to the ground, the darkness shattering like glass. With a snarl, she slammed her second to last knife into the vampire’s hand, pinning it to the floor. The last she held to her throat, knees on either side of her waist. Elide pushed hard enough that blue oozed around her blade. Finally, she saw fear in the vampire’s eyes.

Decapitation. That had to be it.

In her revelation, she had let up just enough to suddenly have their positions reversed. Her own dagger was held at her throat, cold metal stinging. Elide had never feared death. Staring into the golden depths of a vampire queen, she began to understand why people did.

The golden rage that burned hotter than Elide’s own turned hungry as they both realised that Elide had bitten her lip. She stiffened as lips brushed her own softly. The pleasured groan was barely audible as the vampire licked her lips, her eyes fluttering shut.

“Heavenly,” she murmured, eyes opening to focus on Elide. Lust darkened the gold and cold fear swirled through her.

Elide thrashed as fangs sunk into her neck, her head pinned to the ground with an iron grip so she couldn’t move. Her vision began to blur at the edges. The last thing she remembered was the vampire hovering above her, her blue lips stained red and curled up into a satisfied smile as she licked her nails clean.  _ Sleep well, hunter. Tomorrow, we can play again. _

* * *

When Elide opened her eyes, she didn’t expect to see a gauzy canopy above her, moonlight turning the room silver. On her tongue she tasted honey and mint that hinted at something darker.

A woman helped Elide sit up, offering her a cup of water. Her copper skin glowed in the silver moonlight, a dove grey scarf wrapped around her head and obscuring her hair. “Drink, hunter,” she said with a reassuring smile. She looked human, but the tips of her fangs gave it away. “I am Linnea, although everyone calls me Lin.”

Elide pushed back the blankets and refused the water, biting the inside of her cheek so she didn’t scream at the pain in her side and leg. She hobbled across the room, yanking open the armoire doors and dresser drawers looking for her clothes, for her pack, for her weapons. For anything that was hers.

“Where are my things?” she rasped, collapsing into a fit of coughing. Her world swam and she stumbled, tipping sideways.

Someone caught her, yet the two of Lin by the bed never moved.

“Manon …” Lin trailed off, bowing her head slightly and leaving the room.

Manon, whoever the fuck that was, carried Elide back to the bed and laid her down. Recognising the gold eyes and white hair, Elide scrambled backward, chest heaving.

“What the fuck did you do to me?” Elide shouted. “Get out! Get away from me, you fuckingー” She scrambled for a good enough word. “ーfucking MONSTER!”

The vampire queen only raised a single snow-white brow. “That the best you can come up with, hunter?” She shook her head. “I honestly expected better. Something, I don’t know, a little more creative than monster. So unoriginal.”

“Lorcan,” Elide demanded. “What did you do to him? Where is he?”

Manon pulled Elide’s favorite dagger from a sheath at her side, picking dirt or dried blood from under her nails with the tip. “The others are building a pyre for him. You do wish him burned and not buried, yes?” Elide nodded, unable to process what was happening. “Behave, and I’ll return this to you.”

Lin returned shortly after Manon left, politely forcing Elide to drink a swirling purple draught. It left a bitter taste in her mouth. Then she handed Elide a bundle of neatly folded clothing, leaving with only the whisper of her skirt as a farewell.

Elide changed, wincing as she caused further pain to her injuries. A mirror on the wall showed a bandage on her neck, another wrapped around her side, and a third stained pink on her thigh. She dragged her fingers through her dark hair, wishing for a brush. By the time she finished, the night had begun to die.

The sun rose, the castle falling silent.

In the hours she wasted making shadow puppets on the walls, no one came to check on her or change her bandages. And why would they, when the sun was out? So far, the only one Elide knew wasn’t affected by the sun was their queen. Restless, she twisted the doorknob, expecting it to be locked. She was pleasantly surprised when it opened into a corridor.

The castle was deathly quiet, her bare feet sinking into the plush carpets. It took her several times of getting lost in the maze of dark halls before she stumbled upon the library she passed yesterday. Elide smiled, despite the absurdity of her situation and took the first book she saw with an interesting title off the shelf, sinking into the window seat. A brush of her fingers against her side came away red. Elide winced, stretching her leg out and trying to ignore the pain flaring in her thigh.

She read until it was too dark to see, the sun sinking below the horizon. In the distance, she heard doors open and voices chattering. Swinging her feet over the edge, she tried to stand. As soon as she put weight on her injured leg, it buckled and she cried out.

A blonde ran in at the sound of her cry. “You’re theー” Her face paled at the blood staining Elide’s clothing. “Lin!” she shouted. “Where’s Lin?” She lifted Elide effortlessly, carrying her to a table in what looked like the kitchen.

Lin bustled around, muttering under her breath as she grabbed herbs and a mortar and pestle. “Asterin, go find Manon,” she ordered. “Ask her when the last time she cleaned her nails was. Her wounds look infected.”

Elide’s head lolled to the side, everything going fuzzy before she slipped into delirium.

Lorcan sat at her side, his smile soft as he brushed a strand of hair off her face. “Hey, Lee,” he murmured. Slashed across his throat was pale scarring that stood out against his dark skin. He laughed, gesturing to his throat. “Pretty, right?” Elide opened her mouth to answer, but her voice had vanished. Lorcan softened immediately. “You’re stuck between worlds now, Lee. Same as me. But you, you can still go back and kill that white-haired bitch. For you, not all is lost. Now, get that ass in gear and wake up. As much as I love you, I won’t let you stay here with me.” He squeezed her hand and then he faded into ripples.

Elide was hot, so so hot. She was on fire. Voices yelled, but they sounded muffled and murky, like she was underwater.

_ Come on, hunter. Fight! _

Elide stood outside Aelin and Rowan’s home, ashes dancing in the winter air. Her friends were ashes. Lorcan stood behind her, holding the hilt of his sword with his head bowed. The monsters that killed them set fire to the house, leaving them inside to burn alive. Elide swore she would find them and she would kill them.

She saw Lorcan choking, his onyx eyes full of fear as his lifesblood bubbled from his throat. With a blink of an eye, he stood before her with his sword in his hands, his throat scarred instead of red.

_ Avenge me, Lee. Kill her. _

“Gods above, wake up!”

Elide did, surging upward as hands on her shoulders kept her down.

Lin hovered over her, her scarf askew and circles under her eyes. “What’s your name?” she asked softly. Over her shoulder, Elide could see other vampires waiting, watching, listening. Including their white-haired queen.

“Elide Lochan, hーhunter of all things unnatural,” she croaked.

* * *

One evening at dusk, Manon and two others dressed and readied their horses. The other vampires lounged around, playing card games or gossipping.

Elide caught Manon’s arm, the queen’s golden eyes narrowing. “Let go of me unless you want to come hunting with us,” she snarled, baring her fangs.

“I’d like to come,” Elide said, summoning as much courage as she could. She was sick of being cooped up inside the castle. From behind Manon, Asterin shook her head, her eyes wide.

A white brow raised. “Fine. Be ready in five minutes or we leave without you.”

Elide sheathed Lorcan’s sword across her back, armouring herself with her returned daggers and covering it all with her cloak. Although she never learned what happened to the Wyrdmarked dagger, she suspected Manon kept it hidden away.

She rode alongside them to the town, Asterin explaining quietly alongside her how their hunts typically went. Elide knew enough to nod and follow along, her mind preoccupied with how she would get the queen alone and cut her head off. The other two would be threats, but she had killed vampires before. Ahead, Manon rode next to Ghislaine.

A snap of Manon’s fingers changed her hair and eyes from white and gold to brown. Her fangs vanished under the glamour. She looked startlingly  _ human _ . “Pick your jaw up off the ground, hunter,” she snapped. “Let’s get on with it. I’m hungry.”

Asterin and Ghislaine headed off to the other side of town, leaving Elide alone with Manon. They entered the tavern, the patrons barely giving them a glance. Elide tossed the barkeep a coin, taking two tankards of hard cider to where Manon had claimed a table in the corner. Cider sloshed onto the table as she sat down, pulling a deck of tarot cards from the pouch at her side.

“Those aren’t playing cards,” Manon hissed. “What are you playing at?”

Elide offered her a sly smile, slipping back into the anonymity of her hooded cloak. Sure enough, a couple was drawn in by the lure she set. She used her uncanny skill at reading people to amaze and intrigue them, slowly weeding out the locals and people that would be missed.

By the time she finished, she had compiled a list of three people the town wouldn’t miss. All travelers, stopping for a drink on the road.

On the other side of town, Asterin used the back of her hand to wipe the blood from her lips and chin. Ghislaine’s smile was bloody. The man beneath them whimpered. A few feet away was another one, although he was comatose.

“Travelers,” Elide whispered as she and Manon stepped out of the tavern into the moonless night. “A girl and her parents, on their way to a wedding.”

Manon smirked. “A virgin? Virgins taste best.”

“Yes.”

Her grin turned feral. “Maybe you aren’t so useless after all, hunter.”

Elide lagged behind, pretending to remove a stone from her boot. With a flick of her wrists, two knives flew true, catching Manon’s shirt and pinning her to the wooden wall of a building. The vampire curled her lip, reaching up to pull the knives from her clothing.

“Nice tryー” She snarled as two more embedded themselves in her hand and shoulder.

Elide dropped her cloak, reaching over her shoulder to pull Lorcan’s sword from its sheath. Any threats died on Manon’s lips as she took in the sword that seemed to suck in all light. Pinned to the wall, she thrashed, blue blood dripping from her hand and shoulder. Elide knew she would have one chance to strike a killing blow, her strength already fading. Hellas below, his sword was heavy.

She swung, the razor edge cleaving air with a low hum that sent shivers down her spine. Manon’s terror changed at the last second to a fanged smile. Elide swore, trying to stop the swing of the sword. But it was too late.

The blade embedded itself in the wood, yet Manon had vanished, leaving only knives dripping with blue blood.

Then Elide was slammed into the wooden building, a hand wrapped around her throat. “The impertinence you possess, hunter, to attack me  _ again _ ,” Manon snarled, low and threatening. “I should kill you here and now, feed on you instead of those travelers.” She cocked her head in a predatory manner. “But death would be a mercy. To live and suffer is far better.”

Elide opened and closed her mouth like a fish, her legs twitching. The iron grip on her throat allowed no air to pass in or out. Manon pushed up the sleeve of Elide’s shirt, lengthening an iron nail and slashing a line down her forearm. Keeping her pinned against the wall, she lifted Elide’s arm to her mouth and drank.

Abruptly, she fell to the ground on her hands and knees, coughing and gasping for breath. A hand in her hair yanked her up to a kneeling position. Manon’s golden eyes burned with anger. “Try that again and it won’t be as little blood as that. Now get up. We aren’t done yet.”

She didn’t have to act, stumbling out into the road in front of the family. When she collapsed at their feet, the girl fainted. The mother immediately looked to her daughter. The father crouched, reaching out to grasp Elide’s shoulder. She opened her eyes, rolling to her feet and snapping his neck before he could cry out. Still engrossed in making sure her daughter was fine, the mother didn’t notice Elide until she brought the pommel of her dagger down and she too, collapsed.

Down the street, a boy opened his mouth to cry warning to the town, but Elide’s knife embedded itself in his throat and he fell to his knees with a strangled half-cry, gushing blood from the mortal wound in his neck.

She and Manon loaded the family into the cart Elide’s horse was harnessed to, the boy left on the side on the road after Manon drank her fill. Her face was bloody, her teeth crimson as she grinned, mounting her horse. They met up with the other two in the forest, Ghislaine dumping the two men they caught in the cart.

Once back at the castle, they rushed to draw the curtains as the sun rose, feasting on the victims they caught. One of the men awoke halfway through Vesta’s feeding, tied to a chair with her fangs in his neck. The screams carried before cutting off abruptly.

Elide got the privilege of guarding the virgin’s room. She would be their treat for weeks to come, slowly being drained of blood.

The girl banged on the door at noon, shouting for the door to open and for her to let go, her wedding was today. Elide ignored her, dropping back into her drowsy state.

Lorcan leaned against the wall across the hall from her, scowling. His throat was a mess of pale scarring, reminding her that she was failing. “Leeー”

“I’m trying,” she told him, snapping more than she meant to. “You’re nothing more than a ghost, Lorcan.”

A gust of frigid air pushed her hair back and suddenly he stood in front of her, his fingers lifting the pendant made of his ashes. “I’m stuck here until you either let go of me,  _ all of me _ , or you fulfill your promise. Nothing more than a ghost, my ass.” He stabbed his very corporeal finger into her chest. “You’re a hunter, Lochan. Be a hunter.”

Elide startled awake to the girl banging on the door. Fed up, she yanked the door open. “Shut up! Some of us are trying to sleep here, for fuck’s sake,” she spat. The girl shied back, her pale pink dress dirtied.

“Are you going to … you know, eat me?” she whimpered, eyes filling with tears.

“Do I look like a cannibal?” Elide asked, pissed off for multiple reasons.

“No?”

“Just,” Elide waved her hand, “be quiet until the sun goes down. Then bang away.” Under her breath as she closed the door, she muttered, “Then I’ll be asleep in my own bed and someone else can deal with you.”

Shortly before dawn, Elide tromped down to the kitchen and found herself something to eat. There were two bottles with dark red liquids in them; she sniffed them both to determine which one was wine and which one was blood. Turning to head for the room that was the best for watching the sunrise, Elide dropped the bottle in surprise. Manon caught it, rubbing her eye with one hand.

“Good gods, Manon, can you be any quieter?” Elide wondered.

She dragged a hand through her white hair, surprisingly down for once instead of in its single braid. With a half-hearted glare, Manon took an orange from the bowl and stomped up the stairs, making as much noise as possible. “Good night,” she intoned from the top of the stairs.

“It’s morning!” Elide shouted back. The room plunged into pitch black darkness and Elide ran into the table. “Manon!” Light returned. “I’m going to kill her,” she vowed, finally heading to watch the sunrise.

* * *

Elide had heard the other vampires mention Manon’s pet. She expected a housecat to appear out of the shadows one evening and hiss, not this. Sitting in the library’s window seat and reading, she heard the door open and the wooden floor creak underfoot. It wasn’t strange for them to come in and leave quietly, but during full sun it was rare.

A head butted her thigh, purring emanating from the massive feline.

Elide almost screamed, her heart racing. “Gods help me,” she breathed, staying very still. Abraxos continued to purr, his chest rumbling loudly. He blinked his yellow eyes, putting one massive paw on Elide’s leg and flexing his claws. She barely breathed, reaching over to pat the feline’s head in the hopes that he would leave her alone.

Instead, Abraxos took that as invitation to jump up, stretching himself across Elide’s legs and lap where he continued to purr, yellow eyes slowly closing.

Elide really did not want to get bitten or scratched, so for the next few hours she didn’t move. Her legs went numb and she finished her book, but she didn’t disturb Manon’s pet. Eventually, she dozed off.

She awoke when the sun began to set, yawning. The feline on her legs was still asleep, whiskers, paws, and tail twitching as he dreamed.

“Would you look at that,” Manon drawled, leaning against the doorframe while inspecting her nails. “He doesn’t like anyone but me enough to sleep on them. You must be special.”

“Yep, so special I can’t feel anything below the waist,” Elide grumbled.

Manon’s laugh startled her, and apparently Abraxos. The feline yawned, blinking his big yellow eyes at Elide. The vampire queen snapped her fingers twice, clicking her tongue. Abraxos jumped off Elide, stretching as he padded across the floor to nuzzle his head against Manon’s leg. She scratched the space between his ears, the massive cat closing his eyes and purring, almost knocking her over as he rubbed against her leg.

“Is everyone else up yet?” Elide asked, shaking her legs out in a futile attempt to make feeling return faster.

Her golden eyes glittered ferociously in the light of the setting sun. “Nope. Just us, hunter.” She stalked closer, Abraxos following with a swish of his tail and twitching of his ears and whiskers. Once close enough for Elide to see the thin blue veins running through the whites of her eyes, Manon tipped Elide’s head up with a single iron-tipped nail under her chin. The fanged smile sent her heart racing. “Have any more plans to try and kill me again, lovely little hunter? I would love another taste of you,” she whispered, lips brushing the shell of Elide’s ear.

Elide’s breath caught.

“They say feeding can be pleasurable for both parties, if it’s done right,” Manon told her, taking her other hand to brush the loose hair from Elide’s neck. The latter wasn’t sure if she was breathing as Manon brushed her lips over Elide’s throat where her pulse fluttered beneath her skin. “One night, I’d like to find out. Until then, hunter.”

Manon pulled away, turning to walk away, her pet strolling at her side. The door shut behind her with a barely-audible click and Elide sank into the mountain of pillows, chest heaving.

She had promised Lorcan she would kill the vampire queen. The last thing she expected was to find herself attracted to her.

* * *

“So tell me, Elide,” Asterin grinned, her fangs showing boldly, “who exactly have you slept with? A man?” She and a few others had been playing a card game and drinking blood mixed with wine, although Elide drank plain wine. Either way, it make their lips loose and their laughter free. When the vampires drank, they became notorious gossips. The card game forgotten, Asterin had moved onto juicer topics.

“Yes,” Elide answered. 

“A woman?”

“Also yes.”

Asterin giggled, whispering to Faline sitting next to her. Faline’s lips twitched before she hid her expression by taking a sip from her glass. “Both? At the same time?” the blonde asked, leaning close.

Elide shrugged, keeping her expression neutral.

There had been one time on the road where she set her sights on a vampire couple. They took her to bed, worshipping her until she could barely form a coherent thought, much less remember that she was supposed to kill them. And then she drove a wooden stake into each of their hearts. The female died first, her partner asleep beside her. In her last moments, she had lashed out and clawed Elide’s chest open, the four wounds weeping blood that woke her partner up. He was too consumed by his hunger and Elide riding him that he never noticed the stake driving into his heart until it was too late.

“Was it two females? Two males? Or is that your secret?” Ghislaine questioned.

“A secret,” Elide replied with a feline smirk, sinking back into the chair she sat in. A chorus of groans went up, the vampires clearly unhappy with her refusal to divulge any more information.

“What about Lーthe other hunter? Surely you fucked one another,” Kaia piped up in the quiet. She yelped as one of the others kicked her.

Elide stood, setting her mostly-empty bottle of wine down on the table so hard the glass cracked. The room went deathly quiet. “Don’t bring Lorcan into this. He was my friend. Nothing more,” she hissed, glaring at them before stalking out of the room and slamming the door. She headed for the highest balcony of the castle, where the wind whipped her air and the cold bit through her clothes.

Manon found her a while later, leaning against the railing next to Elide with her back to the forest beyond while Elide watched the trees move in the wind. “She didn’t know any better,” Manon said quietly. “Kaia’s young still, inexperienced and naive.”

“Did you come up here just to remind me that you killed him? Wasn’t Kaia insinuating I fucked him enough?” Elide snapped. “Had to double the blow, didn’t you?”

Hurt flashed in the vampire’s golden eyes. “You think so little of me?” she asked, her voice low and even. Threatening. “That my sole goal in life is to torture you day and night?”

Elide curled her lips into a sneer. “Maybe I do,” she shot back. “Fuck, Manon, why am I still alive? You should’ve just killed me along with Lorcan. It would be so much easier. For everyone.” Elide’s voice cracked, the tears she had been bottling up for so long threatening to rise to the surface.

“Do you want to die, then?” Manon asked, her expression unreadable in the moonlight.

“What?”

“Do you want to die, to join him in the afterlife? If that is really what you want, I won’t stop you.” The white-haired vampire offered Elide one of the many daggers she carried on her body at all times.

Elide stumbled back a step. “No, I promised…” she hesitated, “someone something. Put it away, please.” In a smooth motion, the weapon vanished.

Manon stepped closer, slowly, giving Elide ample time to back away or do anything to refuse. Lifting a hand, she softly brushed her knuckles along Elide’s cheekbone, down to her jaw. The vampire brushed her thumb across Elide’s bottom lip, her other hand wrapping around Elide’s waist and tugging her close. She backed them against the frigid stone wall next to the door, but Elide barely felt the cold.

“Tell me if you want this,” Manon breathed. “I need to hear you say yes.”

“Yes,” Elide replied, nodding.

A long, slow blink of golden eyes and white lashes. Then Manon’s lips were on hers, one hand tangled in her hair and the other pulling their bodies as close as they could get. Elide tilted her head back, arching her back off the wall behind her as Manon trailed her lips down her neck, her hands slipping under Elide’s sweater. She gasped, the vampire’s hands cold on her burning skin.

Elide tugged Manon’s lips back to hers, smiling as the vampire caught her bottom lip between her teeth. There was a question in the gold, one Elide nodded to. Manon’s fangs sank into Elide’s lower lip, blood filling her mouth. This time, when Manon kissed her, it was hungry and passionate. She moaned at the taste of Elide’s blood, slotting her thigh between Elide’s own. The aching in her core grew unbearable, and Elide let out a breathless cry.

“Patience, hunter,” Manon murmured, her blue lips stained red with Elide’s blood. “We have all the time in the world.”

This time, her kiss was softer. Elide let her eyes flutter shut as Manon’s hands slipped past her ribs to graze the undersides of her breasts. The vampire dragged her teeth over Elide’s thundering pulse, never going so far as to bite down. The grazes of her fanged teeth shifted to soft kisses and the ghost of her tongue, but never more. Wrapping her arms around Manon’s neck, Elide ground against the thigh between her legs. Manon let out a dark chuckle, hands cupping Elide’s breasts and then squeezing, just enough pressure to make her writhe but not be painful.

Elide gasped as Manon gently dragged her iron nails down the sensitive skin, so focused on the sensations on her skin she almost missed Lorcan standing there. His arms were crossed against his chest, his throat gushing blood. There was so much that it ran in rivers down his body and began to pool on the balcony. His onyx eyes narrowed at Elide, one brow raising as he took in her position with the vampire she promised to kill.

The warmth in her body turned to ice. “Stop,” Elide begged. “Stop, please stop.” Manon stepped back, her cheeks flushed blue and her pupils dilated. “Iー” Elide fled, shutting herself inside her room and locking the door. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget the hurt she saw in Manon’s golden eyes.

_ Lee _ , he said quietly.  _ I’m soー _

Elide screamed, ripping her necklace off and throwing it against the wall. “I can’t!” she cried, voice near to breaking. “I can’t do it, Lorcan!” Tears burned hot as they ran down her cheeks and dripped onto the bedsheets she clutched in white-knuckled fists.

His voice sounded close to her ear.  _ I know, Elide. And I forgive you. I release you of your promise. _ A warmth wrapped around her, reminding her so much of one of his hugs that she cried harder.  _ I love you, Lee. Go be happy. _

It was a final goodbye, one she wasn’t prepared for.

She scrambled from her bed, crawling across the floor looking for the necklace. There it was, hidden half under the dresser. Elide reached for it, tugging the leather cord free and dangling it from her fingers. In the moonlight, the pendant of his ashes broke apart, ashes dancing in the air before vanishing until she was left with nothing but the leather cord and the thin metal wires that had secured the pendant.

She sobbed, leaning against the dresser behind her.

Someone pounded on her door. Then the handle rattled. “Elide!” Lin called out. “Are you okay in there?”

“I’m fine,” Elide answered, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her sweater. When she didn’t hear footsteps walking away, she said loudly, “Really, I’m fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lin asked gently.

Elide stood, padding back to her bed and crawling under the covers. “No.” She fell asleep with the empty necklace clutched to her chest, Abraxos magicking his way through her locked door to stretch himself across her feet.

* * *

Manon avoided her for the next week and a half. If she saw Elide in the hall, she changed directions and went the opposite way, even if they were heading for the same place.

Vesta, the one who had made the necklace in the first place, took it back and refitted the pendant with a chip of onyx. Elide smiled, the stone chilled against her skin as she slipped it under her shirt.

Fed up after two weeks, Elide caught Abraxos in the library and took him hostage. Thankfully, the black leopard trusted her when she put the collar around his neck. Then she slipped a folded note under Manon’s door, donning her cloak and walking out into the forest set alight by the setting sun. She and Abraxos played games with a ball of moss; she kicked it and he chased after it, shredding it with his long claws so that she had to make another.

After three hours, the crescent moon sat high in the sky. And Manon still had not arrived.

“Maybe I was wrong,” Elide murmured, scratching under the feline’s chin. His tail flicked back and forth, then he butted his head into her knee. “Yeah, I hope she’ll come, too.”

Shortly after, Manon stalked out of the trees. “You kidnapped my cat?” she snapped. “And then left without telling anyone?” Her eyes glowed bright in the darkness, her hair shining silver in the starlight. “Do you have a death wish? This forest isn’t safe for humans after dusk.”

“Shut up!” Elide shouted, stomping her foot into the dirt. Manon had the good sense to shut her mouth, looking at the ground beneath their boots. “I’m sorry for what happened the other night. And you’ve been avoiding me. Now please, I know I hurt you, but that wasn’t just a one time thing, was it? Tell me the truth. Please, Manon. I need to know. If you don’t want anything more than that, it’s fine. Iー”

“Be quiet already, hunter,” Manon hissed. She tangled her hands in Elide’s hair, freeing it of it’s careless braid.

Then she was kissing Elide, and there was nothing in the world that could go wrong. Elide smiled against the vampire’s lips, looping her arms around her neck. She hated being shorter than the silver-haired vampire, but found she didn’t mind as Manon kissed her.

“Rax, blanket,” Manon ordered, her pet vanishing and reappearing with a blanket held in his jaws. She let go to spread it across the forest floor, sinking to her knees and pulling Elide down with her.

On their knees, kissing Manon was so much easier. So was unlacing the ties of her shirt and pulling it over her head. Manon growled, her iron nails sliding out as she prepared to shred Elide’s clothing. Elide liked her clothing too much for it to be shredded, so she took it off before the vampire could. Manon’s golden eyes shone so bright as she took in Elide’s bare body, tracing her fingers over the countless scars while lying her down on the blanket.

“One night, you’re going to tell me the stories of these scars,” Manon told her. “But tonight, I want to taste you first.”

Elide blushed, a chill pebbling her bare skin. Manon just laughed, unbraiding her hair and letting it fall in a white curtain as she leaned down to kiss Elide. They kissed until they were breathless, pulling apart to rest their foreheads against the others’ before smiling. Manon’s lips drifted south from Elide’s mouth, her lips hovering over her pulse. The guttural groan that came from her mouth did horrible things to Elide.

Taking Manon’s hand in hers, Elide directed them to where she wanted. Manon sucked in a breath as she felt the wetness beneath her fingers. She took control, slipping one finger inside of Elide. Then two and pumped. Elide cried out as she curled her fingers, opening her eyes to see Manon watching her, her golden eyes full of something she couldn’t place.

“Do it,” Elide said. “Do it. I know you want to.”

Manon smiled, her fangs extending as she lowered her mouth to Elide’s neck. As she bit down, she added a third finger and brushed her thumb over her clit. Elide almost came then and there, the sensation nearly too much for her body to take. Manon drank her fill, rising up to kiss Elide before sliding her way down her body. Elide could taste her own blood on her tongue, could feel the wounds on her neck healing.

And then she forgot her own name as Manon looked up at her between her legs, her lips and chin smeared with blood, using both fingers and tongue. Elide came so hard she saw stars, crying Manon’s name so loud she was sure they heard it back at the castle. Panting, she stared up at the crescent moon through the trees, trying to collect her scattered thoughts.

Manon brushed a piece of dark hair off of her cheek, smiling softly. Elide reached up, using her thumb to wipe off a spot of blood she had missed. “You missed a spot,” she murmured. Manon took her thumb into her mouth, sucking it clean.

“I miss anywhere else?” Manon asked. “Or was that just an excuse to get your filthy human paws on me?” Her grin was purely feral.

Elide shoved her, scoffing, “You wish.”

“My hunter,” the vampire whispered, rolling them so Elide sat astride her. “You are  _ mine _ , Elide Lochan. Never forget that.  _ My _ hunter.”

Straddling the vampire she had promised her friend to kill, Elide’s heart swelled. “Even when I tried to kill you? And nearly succeeded?” She kissed Manon, rocking her hips against hers. “Even then?” she murmured, lowering her head to nip at Manon’s neck. “Or are you at a loss for words, Your Majesty?”

Manon’s only reply was a moan as Elide kissed the plane between her breasts, her fingers slipping inside the vampire beneath her. “Don’t call me that,” she said, breathless. “I am queen no more.”

“As you wish,  _ Your Majesty. _ ”

Elide’s fingers plunged back in, Manon’s shattered cry of, “Hunter!” piercing the night. Bucking her hips, Manon drove Elide’s fingers in to her knuckles, her lips falling apart in a breathless cry.

“Like that?” Elide asked, one hand pleasuring Manon and the other cupping the vampire’s breast. Unlike Elide’s own, the vampire’s fit in her hand.

Manon moaned, “Yes, just like that.” Her white lashes fluttered, hands fumbling at Elide’s skin, searching for purchase and finding it holding onto her waist. “Elide,” she whimpered.

Elide kissed her as Manon came, shaking around her fingers. Her own body begged for more, but Elide forced it to quiet. Starlight shone down upon them as Elide laid down, looping Manon’s arms around her waist and burrowing her nose in the crook of the vampire’s neck.

“You had that the whole time,” Manon muttered breathlessly, “and you never used it. Had you done that instead of using steel, my hunter, I would’ve gladly let you kill me.” Elide laughed, kissing her neck.

“So I am your hunter, and you are my prey,” Elide replied.

Manon scoffed. “I am no one’s prey.” There was a pause. “Although to be yours is not something I would mind.” They lay in silence for a while, limbs entangled. “Elide.” She hummed in response. “I know it’s probably too soon, but one dayーyou don’t have to give me an answer right nowーone day, would you want to be one of us? To live with me, for a longer time than your human lifespan offers?”

Elide thought about it. “Maybe. But we still have years ahead of us. Let us live, and then I will give you an answer.”

The vampire sat up, cupping Elide’s face as she kissed her again until they were breathless. Above them, the sky showed signs of dawn coming. Manon kissed Elide’s throat, above the healed bite.

“Dawn is still a ways off, my hunter. Shall we make the most of it?”

Elide kissed her again, tangling her fingers in the white silk of Manon’s hair. She needed not to give a verbal answer, for her vampire understood and kissed her again. Kissed her and loved her until the dawn came. And did so for the rest of their very, very long lives.


End file.
